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So you’re the proud new owner of a range of Apple AirPods – whether it’s the 2019 AirPods, AirPods (3rd generation), the AirPods Pro or AirPods Max gracing your head right now – and chances are, you do with it are quite satisfied. But you can always be more happy, and fortunately all expenses are made here; That’s right, none of the tricks on this list will cost you a penny.
Of course, we’re still hoping to see the AirPods Pro 2 sometime in 2022, but there’s no point just waiting and hoping for a big reveal. So let’s use this time to get your current (and very talented indeed) Apple hearing gear in tip-top shape for Memorial Day weekend in the US, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in the UK and festival season for us all.
Nobody wants their new, fairly expensive, and fairly small AirPods lost or stolen, except maybe petty criminals… but don’t worry, Apple has this one covered.
The latest AirPods (including AirPods 3, AirPods Max, and AirPods Pro) have a particularly clever Find My app integration tool called Notify When Left Behind. So if you’re out and your AirPods are disconnected (leaved in a coffee shop), you’ll get an instant notification.
To make sure you benefit, all you have to do is open the Find My app on your iOS device, click on your AirPods in your list of Apple devices, and then toggle on Notify me when left behind. Take that, pickpockets!
2. Automatically switch between devices – or not
AirPods have a neat feature that allows them to automatically connect to whatever device you’re actively using. For example, if you’re using your MacBook Pro and listening to a playlist on Tidal, but need to switch to your iPhone to take a good old-fashioned phone call, your AirPods connection will move with you (see the little notification that says ‘Moved to iPhone’) easy without being asked. Sounds useful right?
Well, sometimes… But maybe you just want to keep the music connected and have your phone answered in a traditional and time-honored way. The beauty is you have the luxury of choice!
Whether you want to turn auto-connect on or off, just go to Settings, then Bluetooth, then the little “i” info icon next to your AirPods’ name. Now tap “Connect to this iPhone” and choose whether you want “Automatic” for seamless device switching, or “On last connection to this iPhone” if you’d rather keep your current device until you tell those AirPods otherwise. Voila!
3. Have Siri announce all (or some) of your notifications when using AirPods
…And if you want completely uninterrupted music, you can let Siri stay silent too! For our money, using Siri and AirPods together creates a beautiful partnership – if like us you’re the kind of person who needs to be notified that you have an upcoming meeting.
Thanks to iOS 15, Siri can actually announce all notifications about your AirPods (and not just messages) to you. you can turn it on or off, or Customize which apps can send notifications to Siri to verbalize them in your ears by going to Settings > Announce Notifications (on the Siri tab) and then turning them on to your liking. You can have it fully on so it applies to your HomePod and/or Apple CarPlay too, for example, or just your headphones.
4. Provide spatial audio – with head tracking if your source device supports it
You should definitely take advantage of Apple’s proprietary and immersive three-dimensional audio response to Dolby Atmos for headphones – and for that you need to verify that it’s actually turned on.
A quick way to do this is to go into your iPhone or iPad’s Control Center with your AirPods connected and long-press on the volume control widget. From here, Spatial Audio will appear in the lower right corner. You can toggle it off, on, or (best of all) Apple’s top-of-the-line Head-Tracked Spatial Audio if you’re using AirPods 3, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max and Listen to supported music on an iPhone, iPad, Mac with Apple silicon or Apple TV 4K.
5. Improve AirPods Pro call quality with Conversation Boost
This is an AirPods Pro only thing (but if you don’t have one, we urge you to check out Voice Isolation, your iPhone, iPad, and Mac’s secret setting to massively improve call quality), but it can really be expanded upon and improved upon the clarity of the sound when handling calls.
As the name suggests, Conversation Boost is designed to help people understand conversations better, and it uses the AirPods Pro’s beamforming microphones (also used for noise cancellation) to boost the volume of the person speaking to you.
To use this additional feature, make sure your “AirPods Pro” are updated to the latest firmware, then go to “Settings” on your “iPhone” or “iPad”, tap “Accessibility” and scroll down then down to Audio/Visual. Now turn on the headphone adjustments and scroll down a bit to transparency mode. Lastly, toggle the switch next to Conversation Boost to the green on position and you’re done!
Need content to put your freshly optimized AirPods through their paces? Of course – check out 10 Albums You Must Hear in Spatial Audio from Apple Music. Podcasts more your thing? Check out our picks for the best podcasts of 2022. Have fun!
